Whilst on an official visit to Kabul, Pakistan's foreign minister Hina Rabbani
Khar dismisses a leaked report claiming the country's security services
support the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

"Old wine in an even older bottle. I don't think these claims are new, these claims have been made for many many years," Ms Khar told reporters in the Afghan capital after meeting President Hamid Karzai.

"I think it will be important to look at the conversations which are taking place with the Taliban by many other important capitals of the world. So I think I can just disregard this as potentially a strategic leak or otherwise," she said.

The US report claimed the Taliban are set to retake control of Afghanistan after Nato-led forces withdraw from the country, raising the prospect of a major failure of Western policy after a costly war.

Ms Khar, whose visit was the first high-level meeting in months between officials from Pakistan and Afghanistan, added that the neighbours should stop blaming each other for strained cross-border ties.